A disc of Donizetti gold, a Mahler 3 from the Czech Philh and the best in homegrown chamber music. Simon Rattle’s latest Creation is the icing on the cake.

This month features Spanish Baroque opera, castanets and all, pitch-perfect Mahler from Simon Rattle, and the winner of a notorious song contest (hint: it isn’t Eurovision).

Essential holiday listening includes a Britten rarity, stunning recordings of Elgar and Tippett, a pair of oddball operas, and three outstanding discs of orchestral music by women.

This month features a Kurt Weill trifecta, idiomatic Dvořák symphonies from the Czech Phil, a major Joshua Bell rediscovery and a radical take on Mozart’s Requiem.

This month includes Don Quixote, but not as you know him, rare archival Bruckner, two of Germany’s most interesting Lieder singers and Meyerbeer’s greatest hit.

Folk-flecked piano trios, Elder’s Elgar, Jurowski’s Stravinsky, and orchestral songs from Magdalena Kožená and Stanford. This month’s releases are strikingly eclectic.

John Adams conducts his Gold Rush opera, Janine Jansen thrills with Prokofiev and Sibelius, there are chamber music rarities and a new Gerontius on the block.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra launches new label, thrilling recitals from the Cliburn winner and Piers Lane, plus Rattle’s Spring Symphony and a new Ring on DVD.

A sublime new recording of Handel’s Theodora, recitals from Véronique Gens, Roderick Williams and Michael Spyres, and a Russian blockbuster from Sir Antonio Pappano.

A Frenchwoman’s resurrected Faust is Recording of the Month alongside an opera-fest that includes Kaufmann’s Parsifal. Smetana, Stravinsky, Debussy and Rózsa also feature.

An enthralling Vivaldi survey is our Recording of the Month, alongside dynamic new releases from Lang Lang, Piotr Anderszewski and Sir Simon Rattle.

A Finnish find features as our Recording of the Month, plus Tognetti’s resounding Beethoven, Vänskä’s blockbuster Mahler and a perfect pairing of Whitwell and Withers.